Heart Of Stone
by ttfan111robstar1
Summary: What if Kaiba had fought Mai's duel with Marik and was forced to forget Mokuba? One-Shot.


**Author's Note: Okay, so this little one shot popped into my head last night and I had to write it down. Obviously I know the effects of the millennium rod wouldn't normally work on Kaiba, but I had to write it anyways. Enjoy the fic!**

The card, one side a duel monsters card, and the other a bright white light, whirls in front of him. Seto Kaiba feels his breath catch as it slows to a stop. He is dueling Marik Ishtar, in a desperate fight to save his memories. He hadn't believed Marik's powers- not at first, but then it had happened. The card spinning in front of him had done so only once before. Marik had said it would eliminate someone from his memory, but he hadn't believed him- not until he witnessed it with his own eyes and felt the feeling of the memory that person slipping through his fingers. Now, he is anxious- an unusual emotion for him to have- as he watches the card come to a stop.

He sees the image on the card, and suddenly his world comes to a screeching halt. Time seems to stop, and the world around him seems to fall away.

The image is of his little brother, Mokuba.

He takes three seconds to react.

One- His eyes widen and his heart goes into overdrive as he begins to panic.

Two- He screams "that can't be possible!" at Marik as he whirls around to face his little brother.

Three- He and his brother make eye contact.

Then, Mokuba is running, scrambling up the platform to get to his brother. Roland, who is standing on the side, refereeing the duel, is torn on what to do. No one is supposed to be allowed onto the platform during a duel, but the one climbing it was one of his bosses. In the end, he kept his mouth shut.

"Seto!" Mokuba calls, sprinting toward his older brother. Seto's eyes are focused on him, but his heart sinks as he sees his brother's blue eyes begin to glaze over. He knows it is the beginning of the end- the end of life as he knew it, and the end of Seto as he knew him. He can feel it in his bones and in the pit of his stomach, and in the lump forming in his throat. But he keeps going, because he won't give up on his big brother. Ever.

Seto Kaiba stares at his little brother, the same little brother he vowed to protect all those years ago in the orphanage. He focuses all of his attention on Mokuba- watching him run toward him, thinking about memories of him, and trying to keep himself grounded. Because without Mokuba, he knows that he will be a heartless monster like his Stepfather before him. Without Mokuba, he will have no joy in his life, or reasons to smile. Without Mokuba, he will lose the part of himself that is still human.

But even as he does all of these things to prevent losing the most important person in his life, he can feel him slipping away. Mokuba is like the faded edges of a photograph- wearing away a little more with every second passing. Mokuba seems to be hurrying away from him, even though in reality he is coming closer. But to Kaiba, he is running away, and his memory is growing fainter. He tries to fight it, but the more Mokuba goes into the light, the less fight he has. His reason to fight was slipping away, as was his memory of his brother. Mokuba's image flickered before his vision one final time before it is gone entirely.

Mokuba sees the exact moment that his brother stopped recognizing him, and it shatters his heart into a million pieces. He doesn't realize that he is crying as he runs to his brother. Seto's expression, once panicked, changes. It is a grim face, marked with shadows and lines. It perfectly mirrors their stepfather's face when he is angry. The similarity frightens him so much that he stops running and skitters back a step or two. Then, still determined, he presses forward.

"Seto?" It is a meek, tremulous question.

Seto Kaiba looks in the direction of the voice. Nobody ever calls him by his first name. He doesn't see Mokuba- in fact he looks straight through him- but something about the voice stirs up something deep inside, something he cannot explain. He cannot figure out where it had come from. He dismisses it as the wind, and goes back to his Duel. He is cold, ruthless, uncaring, and reckless with every move. It was clear that with his brother out of the way, he had no reason not to sadistically annihilate every person who dared challenge him. From his superior level of intelligence, he saw Marik as someone far beneath him. And to a degree, he was. Marik did not know that by taking Mokuba from his memory, he had made them equals. Now Seto too cared about no one in his mind.

Mokuba stands there, tears streaming down his red face. Yugi and his friends stare at him with pity, but none of them move yet. There is a feeling they can't place telling them to wait. No one but Mokuba could break this trance. They all know it inside, so they hold back- but their presence is enough to bolster him into speaking again.

"Seto! Big brother! Please, snap out of it!" He cries. Seto's eyes scan the crowd for the owner of the voice, but there is no one there. The feeling comes up inside of him again- it is a longing, but for what he cannot say, because he does not know. He shakes his head to try and clear it, and feels the beginnings of a headache beginning to throb at his temples. He pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"That voice... It's so familiar..." Mokuba sees his words having an effect on his brother, and he presses on.

"Seto, I need you! You've always been there to protect me! You're the only one who's ever really cared about me! Even when things got hard and Gozaburo kept you working for hours with no rest, you still looked out for me! You didn't give up, and you beat him in the end, just like you will Marik!"

Seto puts his hand to his forehead as the headache roars to life, but the longing continues to build and strengthen. "What's... going... on?"

Marik, not taking the interruption kindly, waves his rod angrily. "Silence you foolish boy!"

He points the rod at Mokuba, and sends him flying back into the railing keeping those on the platform from falling off. Mokuba yells as he is thrust backward, but is quiet after his head hits the rails because the injury knocks him into a state of semi-consciousness. His head makes a ringing sound against the metal bars.

The sound, almost like a ringing bell, is like a gong being struck. The longing feeling peaks, rising above anything he had ever felt before. It is like trying to break through several layers of plastic, slowly rising and stretching until- at last! The object penetrates the plastic and reaches the surface.

Abruptly, the longing broke through all layers of Marik's trance. Seto knew what he wanted now. He wanted family. He wanted to be loved. But who could love a monster like him?

Suddenly, Marik's Millennium rod begins glowing. He stares at it in shock.

"What is the meaning of this?!" He cries indignantly.

Kaiba's Duel Disk begins shaking, and suddenly a blue eyes white dragon appears in front of him. Before he can question what's going on, he is struck by a memory.

He is ten years old in his stepfather's house on the couch. Hobson has handed him a book for one of his lessons. He bats it away onto the floor, and Duel monsters cards are in a hollowed out place inside. He thumbs through the cards, until he comes across one that is not like the others. It is a small white card, with a blue eyes on it, clearly drawn by a child's hand. Someone had made that card for him. But _who_?

He stares at blue eyes intently, desperately hoping that somehow he has the answers Seto is craving.

Then, the millennium rod lights up again, just as Mokuba lets out a soft, low moan.

"Big brother... help..." He says as he struggles to keep himself awake.

In a burst, his memories come flooding back. Mokuba. Mokuba had made that card. Mokuba had helped him stop their stepfather. Mokuba had stood by him no matter what.

The faceless phantom now finally had an image, and Kaiba rushes to his little brother, calling out his name. Mokuba gives him a dreamy, half-lucid grin before he goes completely unconscious. Kaiba calls out for paramedics, ordering them to get down here now and help him. Then, he turns back to Marik. He refuses to leave this duel until Marik has lost, or is dead. Marik might have had a heart of stone, but he doesn't. Not anymore.

Because he has a little brother to fight for.


End file.
